The “Sunday Scaries” are real and it’s an affliction impacting millions of workers around the world. 
Without a remedy or treatment, the condition will continue to worsen and spread impacting global productivity.
There is a significant amount of research on this disease an some of the causes of onset include:
- Anxiety about going to work on Monday because there are deadlines and obligations
- My boss is mean and expects too much from me
- The hour-long commute to work
- Netflix not working correctly
- Remnants of the Saturday night hangover
There are hard solutions and easy solutions to curing these terrible Sunday Scaries. If you think your boss is mean, spend some time openly and honestly trying to figure out why and if there are things you are doing that would prompt the negative perception you are detecting. If your commute is too long, then move closer to the job or get a new job. If your Netflix isn’t working reboot it and try again. If you are constantly enduring hangovers, stop drinking and staying out late every night of the week.
The Sunday Preppies
Based on research, observations, and my own very strong opinion, the cure for work-related anxieties is a little harder to implement than the others. Too much work, deadlines, and other obligations are unfortunately the price most people must pay to make a decent salary. But there is a cure and it is something called the Sunday Preppies.
The Sunday Preppies is defined as investing real, thoughtful, and focused time and effort to prepare for the upcoming week by anticipating needs and getting ready for the upcoming week ahead.
A few examples of implementing the Sunday Preppie cure:
Getting ready for The Monday Weekly Check-in with the Customer – You’ve known all week about the Monday morning customer check-in call but between partying and binge-watching Netflix shows you haven’t done a thing to get ready. And now you are in the fetal position on the floor and a nice Sunday night. Here’s the Preppie advice: Don’t ignore your work and don’t wait until the last minute to get ready. Take the time to prepare an agenda, review the notes from the last meeting, and make sure all of the appropriate actions have been taken.
Prepare and Prioritize Your To-Do List – Flying by the seat of your pants totally unprepared will of course make you anxious. There is nothing worse than letting everyone in your office down because you haven’t taken the time to anticipate, prepare, and think things through. A Sunday Preppie exercise is thinking through the week and preparing a prioritized to-do list and then check things off as you’ve accomplished them.
Pay Attention to Details – Details are tricky little things. If you don’t watch them, listen to them, and guide them, they can come back to haunt you. The Sunday Preppie approach suggests that you review your proposals, projects, and other work elements in advance, and you run them instead of letting them run you.
I guarantee you that if you spend just a little time preparing and getting ready for the week the Sunday Scaries will float away and never cause you anxiety again.
